GALLERY: EARTH RIDERS

The Earth is art, we are the witnesses: a unique student program proves it.

“THE EARTH IS ART, the photographer is only a witness.” So said Yann Arthus-bertrand, the French photojournalist famed for his creative career looking down on creation. But to be a witness akin to the world-renowned aerial snapper, documenting the planet from above historically meant having to part of a highly exclusive club, a membership as rarefied as the altitudes one needed to attain perspective. But no longer is the chance to turn landscapes into landscape art so limited; and no longer does it require commandeering a hot-air balloon, aeroplane or helicopter. Since 1996, a program sponsored by NASA has enabled school students around the world to remotely point and shoot a special camera on the International Space Station. The results are sometimes startlingly beautiful, less like Google Earth than a painter’s canvas. Here are a few of the best, selected by art director Robyn Adderly from hundreds of images taken on recent missions. Pictured: Somalia, Africa 6.73° N, 47.30° E